GoDaddy

Key Findings

• Economic: GoDaddy led the $50 million Series C round for Tel Aviv-founded Tailor Brands in July 2021, described as its first direct investment in an Israeli company; the company’s own share and the investment’s current status are not publicly confirmed.¹
• Digital: An IDF psychological-operations/extortion website targeting Gaza residents was hosted through GoDaddy after other providers removed it; following public pressure, GoDaddy reportedly suspended the account by 20 July 2024 without a public explanation.²
• Corporate presence: GoDaddy’s FY2024 subsidiary filing lists GoDaddy Israel Web Services Ltd; its current headcount, function, and financial scale remain unconfirmed.³
• Political: GoDaddy maintains an Israel-facing storefront and support route. Its documented Ukraine statement, compared with no Israel-Palestine statement located in the reviewed record, informs the assessment of its continuing business-as-usual posture.^{4, 5}

Target Profile

Key Facts:

• GoDaddy Israel Web Services Ltd is expressly listed as a GoDaddy subsidiary in the company’s FY2024 Exhibit 21.1.³
• GoDaddy maintains a localized Israeli storefront and Israeli customer-support contact route.⁴
• Mad Mimi retired as a product on 30 August 2024; that retirement does not establish disposal of all acquired assets or closure of Israeli operations.¹⁰

Executive Summary

GoDaddy is a U.S. public company providing civilian internet-services products, including domain registration, web hosting, website-building, marketing, security, and commerce software.⁶ The record establishes a commercial and investment nexus with Israel, rather than a documented defence-industry or settlement-business nexus. Its FY2024 subsidiary filing lists GoDaddy Israel Web Services Ltd, while a localized Israeli storefront and support line demonstrate customer-market access; the precise role, headcount, and financial scale of the Israeli subsidiary remain unconfirmed.^{3, 4}

The strongest economic finding is GoDaddy’s lead role in the $50 million July 2021 Series C financing of Tailor Brands, a Tel Aviv-founded branding and business-design SaaS platform. Contemporary reporting described it as GoDaddy’s first direct investment in an Israeli company and its largest private-company investment to that date. The total round must not be treated as GoDaddy’s individual contribution: its ownership percentage and whether the investment remained active as of 2026 are not publicly confirmed.¹

A separate adverse digital finding is the time-limited 2024 hosting episode. Reporting states that an IDF website used in a psychological-operations/extortion campaign targeting Gaza residents moved to GoDaddy after removals by Webflow and Namecheap. GoDaddy initially reportedly resisted takedown requests; after renewed public pressure and coverage, the account was reportedly suspended by 20 July 2024. The evidence documents temporary platform use by an Israeli military body, not a procurement contract, bespoke military technology, or a recurring service relationship.^{2, 11}

The reviewed record substantiates the investment, subsidiary, market-access and discontinued hosting findings above. The military-domain review identified no qualifying physical supply act. Database checks remain limited to the particular reports and retrieved materials described in the audits; they are not a universal exclusion from every watchlist.

Under the fixed, human-vetted V6.5 method, GoDaddy receives a BRS score of 398, placing it in Tier D (Moderate Complicity). The score reflects documented directness and persistence in the economic, digital, and political-policy domains, while retaining the substantial exculpatory record and assigning no military-domain score.

Timeline of Relevant Events

Corporate Overview

GoDaddy is a U.S.-founded, NYSE-listed commercial internet-services company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.^{7, 8} Its disclosed product categories are civilian web and small-business services, rather than physical goods, logistics, construction, weapons, or dedicated security systems.⁶

The primary corporate-structure evidence is GoDaddy’s FY2024 Exhibit 21.1, which expressly lists GoDaddy Israel Web Services Ltd as an Israeli subsidiary.³ Registry material identifies the entity with company number 515118859 and a Tel Aviv-Jaffa address, but the audits caution that local headcount, business function, activity status, and financial scale are not confirmed by the available evidence.¹³ GoDaddy’s global careers-locations page does not list Israel among its featured corporate or engineering hubs; that omission does not establish that the subsidiary has no operational activity.¹⁴

GoDaddy operates a localized Israeli consumer storefront and support route.⁴ A separate ISOC-IL dispute concerns the godaddy.co.il name; the dispute itself does not establish government service provision.¹⁵

The two principal historic commercial/capital links are Mad Mimi and Tailor Brands. Mad Mimi was U.S.-founded, though founder Gary Levitt ran it from Jerusalem before GoDaddy acquired it in 2014; it should therefore not be characterized simply as an Israeli-company acquisition.¹² Tailor Brands was founded in Tel Aviv and is described as dual-headquartered in New York and Tel Aviv. GoDaddy led its 2021 round, but no source reviewed establishes GoDaddy’s investment share, a continuing commercial relationship, or a subsequent divestment.¹

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

The military-domain audit identified no qualifying physical procurement or supply act. The documented internet-services business and the distinct digital episode must be assessed on their actual functions.^{2, 6}

The sole military-adjacent record is the 2024 hosting episode: reporting states that an IDF extortion/psychological-operations website moved to GoDaddy after other providers removed it, and that GoDaddy later suspended the account.² The reported website used informational coercion; it is not evidence of weapons supply, physical logistical support, a targeting system, or a kill-chain capability.¹¹

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

GoDaddy’s strongest defence is the nature of the documented activity: civilian internet services and a standard hosting account, without evidence of a physical supply mechanism.^{2, 6} The hosting record concerns a standard commercial account, was reportedly discontinued in July 2024, and does not establish a continuing or bespoke military relationship.²

The hosting report does not disclose the account’s contract value or internal personnel decisions. Its suspension is documented; no recurrence was identified in the reviewed record.²

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

The governing digital scenario is GoDaddy’s direct lead investment in Tailor Brands. The company is an Israeli AI/SaaS business; the evidence does not establish military technology, state-security deployment or sensitive-data exposure. The supported low digital impact and material but unquantified investment magnitude produce I 3.0, M 4.0, P 9.0 and V 1.71. This exceeds the separately scored discontinued-hosting scenario at I 4.0, M 2.5, P 9.0 and V 1.43. The $50 million is the whole round, and current GoDaddy stake and holding status remain unconfirmed.¹ No public evidence identified that it operates data centres in Israel, provides Israeli sovereign-cloud services, or participates in Project Nimbus, which is documented as an AWS and Google Cloud agreement with the Israeli government.^{16, 17}

The documented adverse digital episode is the temporary 2024 hosting of the IDF extortion website. Reporting describes GoDaddy initially resisting removal requests and subsequently suspending the account after public pressure. The evidence supports a discontinued platform-hosting relationship, not a documented deployment of GoDaddy technology for surveillance, intelligence, offensive cyber operations, targeting, or autonomous systems.²

No public evidence identified of GoDaddy licensing or integrating Israeli cybersecurity products such as Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, NICE, Verint, or Claroty. Its announced 2018 infrastructure-migration partner was AWS; the audit did not independently reconfirm the arrangement’s continued status in 2025–2026.¹⁸

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

GoDaddy can reasonably argue that its products are broadly available internet infrastructure and that the documented IDF use was not a specialised military product or a confirmed state contract.^{2, 6} It reportedly suspended the account, and no evidence of recurrence was identified.²

The cited registry and subsidiary filing establish incorporation and group ownership, not a technical deployment or the subsidiary’s operating function. The careers-page omission likewise cannot establish closure.^{3, 13, 14}

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

GoDaddy’s clearest direct economic nexus is its lead role in Tailor Brands’ $50 million Series C round in July 2021. The investment was described as GoDaddy’s first direct investment in an Israeli company and its largest private-company investment to that date.¹ The total round was financed alongside other investors; no source reviewed identifies GoDaddy’s individual cheque, ownership percentage, current holding, or subsequent divestment.¹

GoDaddy also acquired Mad Mimi in August 2014. Mad Mimi was founded in Brooklyn, while its founder had relocated to Jerusalem and ran the company remotely from there. Its retirement in 2024 establishes product retirement, not closure of all acquired assets or Israeli operations.^{10, 12}

The subsidiary filing and storefront establish group presence and market access without quantifying Israeli revenue, local headcount or invested capital.^{3, 4}

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The strongest defence is that GoDaddy’s documented economic relationship is ordinary commercial and venture-capital activity in civilian software, not settlement commerce, resource extraction, physical infrastructure, or military supply.^{1, 6} Tailor Brands’ total round cannot be attributed wholly to GoDaddy; neither stake size nor current status is public in the reviewed sources.¹

The audits record limited database and report checks with no GoDaddy match in the retrieved material. They also disclose that the economic audit did not independently search the complete primary A/HRC/59/23 text line by line. This limitation prevents treating the review as a conclusive report-wide exclusion.^{19, 20}

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

No Israel-Palestine statement was located in the audit’s reviewed communications record. This is a bounded search finding rather than an assertion that no such statement could exist. GoDaddy did issue a public statement and practical support measures concerning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the contrast is a comparative-silence data point and does not establish a policy of non-comment on Israel/Palestine.⁵

The governing political scenario is the continuing Israel-facing storefront, support route and disclosed subsidiary, considered alongside the documented comparative communications record.^{3, 4, 5} The separate 2024 hosting case is relevant context, with its shorter duration preserved. Reporting characterizes GoDaddy’s initial response to removal demands as an assertion that it did not make content decisions, a position disputed by the activist collective; the account was later reportedly suspended without public explanation.² This is evidence of a documented moderation and platform-governance episode, not evidence of an adopted state-policy partnership.

GoDaddy operates a U.S. federal PAC, but no public evidence identified of its PAC or lobbying activity directed at Israel-related policy, state anti-BDS legislation, Middle East trade legislation, or pro-Israel advocacy.²¹ A Boykot Market listing is based on indirect institutional-shareholder links and the Tailor Brands investment, rather than a claim of GoDaddy-specific military or settlement conduct.²²

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The reviewed PAC records establish historical US political activity but do not identify Israel-related activity in those records. They cannot alone establish the absence of all donations or lobbying elsewhere.²¹

The documented hosting episode was discontinued. It does not on its own establish a recurring moderation policy or state partnership; the continuing commercial-posture scenario is assessed separately.^{2, 3, 4}

Named Entities and Evidence Map

BDS-1000 Score

Method: V6.5

• V_MAX: 4.50 Avg_OTHERS: 1.40
• BRS Score: 398 Tier: D (Moderate Complicity)

Economic is the maximum domain through the single Tailor Brands lead-investment scenario. The separate subsidiary and storefront scenarios are not added to its magnitude.^{1, 3, 4} Digital also uses the investment scenario at its own domain-specific bands, after comparison with the discontinued hosting episode. Political uses the continuing business-as-usual scenario, rather than the brief hosting episode. Military remains zero because the reviewed record establishes no qualifying physical military act.

Methodology Note

• This dossier compiles only findings and limitations established in the four supplied domain audits; it does not infer facts from corporate nationality, investor identity, education, or association alone.
• Impact (I) assesses the documented activity type, M assesses its evidenced scale, and P assesses directness; the method does not treat allegations as findings without documentary support.
• The assessment measures impact, scale and proximity within the rubric; it is not a finding of legal liability or private intent.
• Divested, exited, or discontinued operations mitigate findings. Mad Mimi’s product retirement and the IDF account suspension are retained with their evidentiary limits and are not treated as proof of broader ongoing conduct.^{2, 10}
• Entity attribution is specific: shareholder links, a director’s educational credentials, and an acquired company founder’s location are not transitive proof of GoDaddy political or military conduct.
• Settlement operations may be relevant to both Economic and Political where evidenced. Here, no public evidence identified of GoDaddy settlement operations; “No public evidence identified” is used where the audits’ checks located no support.¹⁹